


Hazardous Paths

by xspike4evax



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-07-10 18:54:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7000396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xspike4evax/pseuds/xspike4evax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Willow comes across Spike trying to subsidise his income she finally understands the truth about his chip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hazardous Paths

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts: Trust from the prompt table and true love from the valentine's bingo card at bad_swa

Willow was pretty sure that Spike wouldn’t have done it if he had known she was there, but he hadn’t noticed her in the shadows, so intent was he on his task. Willow had figured Spike’s money came from Giles. It hadn’t occurred to her that he might have a way of subsidising his income by mugging people. At first it made her cross to see him leaping out of the darkness and demanding money with menaces from innocent people. Unfortunately for Spike he had chosen someone who refused to be a victim and earned himself a punch in the nose. Spike, as was Spike’s natural instinct, had lashed out and his chip had kicked in. 

She made her presence known before the tables turned and Spike became the victim of his own stunt. The man went on his way as Spike scrambled to his knees, not quite able to rise just yet. Willow reached for him, drawing him close, and Spike pressed his face into the softness of her belly as she stroked his head, trying to banish the pain and knowing she was incapable of doing so. 

It was one thing knowing he couldn’t hurt her friends, it was quite another to realise that somebody else, anybody else, could hurt Spike and he was unable to fight back. Finally, Willow truly understood about the chip. It was as though she saw Spike for the first time and she started, eyes wide with the horror of it. Spike was so vital, so strong, so very capable, and yet he was enslaved. 

It hurt her to see it. 

His head tilted back and he looked up at her. His eyes met hers and Willow swallowed reflexively. Spike did things to her. Things she didn’t understand but enjoyed anyway. Things that made her want to fight for him. Spike had no-one to fight his corner except her. 

Sometimes the path chosen wasn’t the easy one. Willow had always known that. Her path, having befriend Buffy, had been fraught with danger and now her path, loving Spike, was full of its own particular hazards. Whether she should or not Willow didn’t know, but she trusted Spike and she knew he trusted her. 

The right thing wasn’t always the most popular choice. And what was right for one wasn’t necessarily right for another. But if she was going to be with Spike, as she had insisted to her disapproving friends that she was, then she was going to commit to him fully. If you truly loved someone, then you did all you could for them.

Willow squatted in front of him, her hand smoothing his cheek for a moment before kissing him. “I know what to do, Spike. I’m going to fix you.”


End file.
